University police are investigating two burglaries at the Heller Hall Visual Resources Center.
Last weekend approximately 40 DVDs were stolen, and approximately 60 are missing from the previous month, said Rebecca Moss, a curator at Heller Hall.
Both times the suspect tried selling the DVDs at Cheapo Discs in Dinkytown, but Laura Kennedy, manager on duty at Cheapo, said employees stopped him.
“We recognized they were stolen immediately and called the police,” she said.
Last weekend, the man left Cheapo when police arrived, and police were unable to apprehend him, Kennedy said.
Moss said used CD shops and pawnshops were given lists of the stolen DVDs after the break-ins.
“Laura Kennedy was on it,” Moss said. “She’s given me a lot of advice on how to mark discs so that resellers know they were stolen.”
Kennedy said people try to sell stolen DVDs and CDs from time to time at Cheapo. She said after the first theft, she suggested the University libraries label their DVDs so it’s more obvious when people try to sell them.
The discs had all been labeled with stickers during the first robbery, Moss said, but now they are marked with permanent marker.
Approximately half the stolen DVDs were recovered from Cheapo when the thief tried to sell them, Moss said. The man left with the rest of the discs.
University Police Lt. Chuck Miner said the case is still being investigated.
Officers seized a surveillance tape from Cheapo, and Heller Hall Visual Resources Center is installing an alarm to prevent future theft, according to the police report.
In other police news:
Police arrested a 21-year-old student near the intersection of Delaware and Oak streets for driving while intoxicated.
Officers pulled over the man after his car passed a parked emergency vehicle too closely.
A new Minnesota law requires that a car passing a parked emergency vehicle be at least one lane away.
The law was passed in the 2002 legislative session in honor of State Trooper Ted Foss, who was fatally struck by a semi-truck during a traffic stop.
Lt. Miner said traffic stops of this nature are still a little unusual but are made approximately once a month on campus. He said it is difficult for an officer to apprehend someone who drives too close while the officer already has someone else pulled over.
The Foss Law is a petty misdemeanor which carries a fine similar in size to a speeding ticket, Miner said.
A Coffman Union custodian turned over a checkbook, a syringe and a sweatshirt to University police Thursday.
Lt. Miner said police are investigating because they want to return the checkbook to its owner and investigate what the syringe was used for.
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